Hey Obama! Bain Capital EMPLOYS Rush Limbaugh, Hannity and Glenn Beck

This is what Obama should say next about Mitt Romney and Bain Capital:

In 2008, Bain Capital acquired Clear Channel Radio and 850 radio stations for $24 billion, and records show 14 of the company's directors have contributed more than $700,000 to Romney's campaigns. Romney supposedly left the firm in 1999, but still rakes in millions from his sizable share of Bain investments and pays 15 percent tax.

Romney's Bain Capital controls the board of directors of Clear Channel. These are people who started giving to Romney in 1994. This is a social and economic network that is deeply involved in Clear Channel and tightly controlled.

These are Romney's friends and allies going back to the very beginning of his political career. And now they control Clear Channel Radio, America's largest and most powerful FM and AM radio station corporation. It operates 850 radio stations and reaches 110 million Americans.

Clear Channel syndicates most conservative talk radio shows including Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck and Michael Savage. And what about all that "free" advertising that Romney gets every day on hundreds of radio stations across the country on these talk shows?

What better way to control the message of conservative talk radio than to BUY it? Rush Limbaugh was given a $400 million contract in 2008 when Bain Capital purchased Clear Channel. He broadcasts on over 600 radio stations. Sean Hannity is heard on over 500 stations by 13.5 million listeners. Hannity also received a new and lucrative contract when Bain purchased Clear Channel in 2008.

In a stunning article from Wayne Barrett of Newsweek and The Daily Beast from March 2012, Romney and Bain were outed as the money behind conservative talk radio. Bain bought Clear Channel in 2008 then took over its board of directors with the goal of influencing public opinion during the presidential campaigns of 2008, 2012 and beyond. With millions of dollars now being donated to the Romney campaign from Clear Channel, Americans should wonder just how much control Mitt Romney and Bain Capital have over conservative talk radio show hosts Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck. These shows reach tens of millions of listeners every day. Sean Hannity reaches even more viewers on his Fox News television show.

Conservative talk radio show hosts rely on Bain Capital for their livelihood. That can't be good for fair and honest opinions on their shows.

7. big difference...

Romney and associates planned a takeover of conservative talk radio. For over a year, Clear Channel Radio has been pushing its conservative talk show hosts to make Romney the GOP nominee in 2012.

Clear Channel's conservative talk show hosts defend Romney on the Bain issue every day, because they do not want the American public to understand how Clear Channel is in the bag for Romney and has been since 2008 when Bain purchased it.

Rupert Murdoch of FOX has spoken out against Mitt Romney.

But Clear Channel is controlled by Bain and is STEERING THE VOTES OF MILLIONS OF AMERICANS with sheer propaganda.

19. yes/

15. It is good to see you bring this up now; I was thinking the same thing earlier

Limbaugh has a pattern of conduct. When a potentially hot potato topic comes up, it is almost as if some source gives him the nod to go off the cliff. He does and all eyes and ears tune in to his commentary, diverting attention from the core issue. I am so tired of this. And the liberal commentators we enjoy listening to immediately turn to his incendiary language and begin a discussion on that, leaving the core behind. Why do they do this? It is like enabling him.

Ignore him. He's beyond idiocy, disgusting. If I wanted a dose of Limbaugh and his ilk, I would tune in to their broadcasts. That has never happened and never will.

So I agree with your point. Limbaugh is nothing more than a crass tool deployed by Romney and his ilk when attention needs to be diverted from an important issue under intense scrutiny.

52. stephanie cutter: email me!

23. Bain's Modus Operendi...

I first posted about this here in 2007 when the deal was first coming down. It's a typical Bain fleecing operation with a political twist. The $24 billion debt has been used to milk tons of fees and to downscale stations right and left. No different than other Bain games where they will eventually gut all these stations of what value is left in them...while the radio industry implodes. Yes...there is the political component and good luck to you in trying to bring this to light. Unfortunately Cheap Channel/Bain isn't the only company doing that...so is Cumulus and Salem and these companies have long benefitted from using their hate radio stations to their political and financial gain.

25. I Appreciate Your Optimism

But I don't see how this will have any affect on the body politic. It surely won't take out Hannity or Rushbo as we saw with the Sandra Fluke situation...Bob Pitman and John Hogan will not fire them and all the noise only helps give them publicity. Hate radio is a dinosaur...a remnant of a radio that is rapidly fading away and Bain/Cheap Channel is keeping a Titanic afloat just long enough to make their financial killing and be on their way. Internet, Satellite and Podcasting are taking their toll on the bottom lines of this company and hate radio's audience continues to get old and fade away.

Unfortunately those who listen to hate radio do so by choice...and banishing it wouldn't chance the political dynamic in this country. I wish it would but its influence is more among the chattering classes than it is on the masses. Hate radio is used to echo messages these days, not to spread them. Mittens needed those stations more to win the nomination than it is to win the general election...Citizens United is what he'll use to carpetbomb the media (and BTW Bain/Cheap Channel stand to make a nice chunk of change from the SuperPac spending...yet only a fraction of what will be spent on TV).

The turning of the public airwaves has been a bipartisan venture (Telcom '96 was passed under Clinton) and there's no appetite to reform ownership rules...

26. there is reason to think this will stop romney...

i used to listen to limbaugh, hannity and glenn beck for years. one day, i found out that bain capital actually owned the clear channel syndication stations for these shows. i was pulling for a non-Romney GOP candidate at the time.

for the past 15 months, clear channel radio stations have been bashing the non-Romney candidates, smearing them and lying about them. that's how romney was able to bully his way into the GOP nomination selection process: money and radio talk shows.

conservative radio talk shows have been telling listeners that OBAMA must be removed from office. conservatives are literally brainwashed into believing that ANYONE would be better than obama.

27. The Fleecing Of The Public Airwaves Are Fait Acompli

Your highlighting a problem that's more endemic within the rushpublican party than it is outside. The party is fractured; highlighted by last year's clown car demolition derby primary. Mittens didn't win as much as the "true conservatives" couldn't rally around one candidate and allowed Mittens to survive similar to how Gramps McCain won the nomination in '08. It's rushbo's "operation chaos" come home to roost. For a time I thought Seanity was on the Cain train and rushbo's "support" of Rmoney has been tepid in comparison of his water carrying for the booooshies.

Of course hate radio has been trashing this President...non-stop ever since he first announced his candidacy. It had no affect in '08 and one can say it was rushbo's big mouth that cost the rushpublicans control of the House and Senate in '06 when he blasted Michael J. Fox in the waning days of the campaign. Religious radio that is further below the radar has been trashing Obama even worse...calling him the anti-christ, "muslim" and all forms of evil incarnate. Those who listen to these stations (and they're a small segment of the electorate) are already far gone...they'll believe all that's fed to them. It's daily affirmation for their rage and frustrated lives.

What will stop Rmoney? His own arrogance and greed. Still 40% of the voting electorate will vote against their own interests...

30. It Never Really Has...

While the Constitution is a wonderful document and was light years ahead of any political document written before, its words have long been controlled by those with the deepest pockets with rare moments of accountability after their games and corruption overload the system. The best we can ask for is accountability and transparency and hope that the power of the voter can trump the power of the dollar. Occasionally it happens but today there are too many groups stuck in their own special intersts...solidarity is rare and fleeting.